Japan & South West Scotland

Samurai and Society

Samurai and Society

Some historians consider the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 to be
the start of the Edo period, although it was not until 1603 that
Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616), officially became the shōgun, the
general or military dictator, of a recently-unified Japan.
The Tokugawa family ruled Japan for almost 300 years until
the Emperor was restored to power in 1868.

Politics and
Power

The Emperor was based in Kyoto, the capital city of Japan.
Ieyasu established himself in Edo (modern-day Tokyo) and managed to
usurp the real power whilst leaving the Emperor as a figurehead.
To avoid any potential political uprisings Ieyasu set up a
system of alternate attendance, which meant that all
daimyō, a high-ranking samurai or lord in charge of a
region, had to spend one year in their own domain and the next with
the shōgun in Edo. Samurai literally means 'those who serve'
because they served under a daimyō and pledged their
loyalty to their master.

Social
Classes

Ieyasu set up a strict social hierarchy of four main social
classes. The Emperor, the nobility, and monks were exempt
because of their high status. Samurai were at the top despite
making up less than ten percent of Japan's population.
Next were the farmers who produced the rice that the Edo
period economy was based on, and they accounted for eighty per cent
of the population. Then came the artisans, and beneath them
the merchants.

Samurai and
Swords

The sword was seen as the soul of the samurai, and only samurai
were allowed to carry two swords as a symbol of their high status
in society. The samurai followed a code of honour and loyalty
known as bushidō (The Way of the Warrior).
Bushidō was heavily influenced by Neo-Confucianism,
which rejected superstition and believed that the individual was
responsible for creating social harmony by adhering to personal
morals. In the 1860s samurai were integrated into a
modernised Japan, they were no longer allowed to carry swords and
during in the Meiji era (1868-1912) samurai as a social class
ceased to exist.